Yvette Cooper says Labour’s defeat was a failure of political strategy

Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper has written an article for the Huffington Post today, blaming Labour’s political strategy as the foremost reason for the defeat on May 7th. She identifies the inability the mistaken belief that former Lib Dems would automatically vote Labour, as well as failure to deal with the electoral threat of UKIP, as primary causes of the heavy defeat.

“The political strategy of the Parliament failed. And we cannot repeat the same mistakes again.

“We lost votes in many directions. In our target seats, the Tories increased their votes and so did UKIP. Too many swing voters and traditional voters chose anyone but us.

“The assumption that the Lib Dem vote would collapse in our favour was simply wrong.

“Bluntly, not enough people trusted us with their future. Not enough people were convinced we could do the job.”

The Shadow Home Secretary also attacks the idea that Labour are in too poor a position to win again in 2020, and must instead adopt a strategy for victory in 2025 – a belief she says some in the party hold.

“They believe we simply can’t return to office in under a decade. They advocate, not a 2020 strategy, but a vague plan to win in 2025.”